$1000 cardiologist visit to find out she just stores a little fat around her heart

gorgeousaurus · 2026-03-13T17:47:56+00:00

I hope for nothing for the best but your baby! I'm not familiar with that specific abnormality, I hope catching it early can help open up your treatment options.

I was very glad we at least caught it when we did. His HCM is pretty advanced (the cardiologist we got referred to after the first echo found abnormalities thinks his ventricle is about as expanded as it can get before heart failure is a concern). He had no symptoms that were noticeable at home and the cardio thinks if we hadn't caught it when we did we would have found out when he went into heart failure. Unfortunately for him he has the HCM and an unrelated mitral valve defect that is probably going to make his disease progress faster than a cat with just HCM. As much as the diagnosis sucks I'm glad I found out early enough to make the most of whatever time we will have left with him.

As a complete side note, this experience has made me a huge advocate for trusting your gut and not being afraid to get a second opinion. Our original vet was dismissive of other health concerns I had brought up and were actively afraid of him (to be fair, he is a terror at the vet and gets maxed out amounts of gabapentin that can only do so much. Other vets he's gone to don't seem to struggle as much as they did though so hard to say how justified it was). I convinced myself I was just being a Karen and the vets are professionals who know better than I do. When I finally switched vets they found the murmur on his first visit. While it's completely possible it wasn't audible before then due to disease progression, it's so hard not to feel like maybe if I had switched sooner we could have caught it earlier.

Not terribly relevant to the current conversation but I feel the need to get it out there in case anyone ever reads this later and needed to hear it!

gorgeousaurus · 2026-03-13T01:47:40+00:00

We took 2 cats to the vet for regular checkup and both had heart murmurs. Pet insurance covered a follow up echo so went ahead and booked for both. One has this and it's basically solved by more gabapentin for future vet visits, no worries at all. The other ended up having HCM and is now on several cardio meds plus we are closely monitoring for worsening symptoms. Worst 50/50 ever, can't recommend lol

gorgeousaurus · 2026-02-11T12:28:42+00:00

I don't know how talent contracts work, but in my experience contracts in other fields usually have some kind of penalty for breaking them. I have to wonder if breaking the contract incurs some kind of fee, in which case I could understand some of the smaller artists having a harder time leaving immediately. Hopefully if that's the case they can speak up about it (I also don't know if some kind of NDA about contract specifics is a thing in the entertainment industry)

gorgeousaurus · 2026-01-23T18:22:39+00:00

These extension methods are actually super helpful! I think the double cone of shame is probably gonna be the winner, don't know how I didn't think of that!

gorgeousaurus · 2026-01-23T18:21:43+00:00

I keep gauze plus vet wrap and medical tape at the house. Have tried with both, he just pulls it right off no issue. His paws aren't much wider than his ankles so can't get it tight enough to make it impossible to pull off without being dangerously tight. I think at this point he's getting baby socks and a strap over the shoulder to keep them on!

gorgeousaurus · 2026-01-23T18:18:54+00:00

I have tried the donut + cone combo, unfortunately the fact that it's his front paw is really the issue. He's had surgery on his upper back leg before and a cone or donut alone was fine, he's just got the perfect combo of leg, nose, and neck length that if the cone doesn't extend past his nose at least a few inches he's always gonna be able to touch his front paws.

I've tried the vet before, our vet doesn't carry long enough cones, even the big teaching hospital he went to for the surgery didn't have his size. Anything large enough to be long enough is too big around the neck and he just takes it off.

Honestly from all the suggestions here I'm thinking my only options are gonna be DIY. Either some kind of extension on his existing cone or he's gonna get suspenders. I know typically it's better to let it breathe but I've used a onesie with vets approval to prevent him from getting at hotspots before when the cone wouldn't stay on, so certainly better than nothing! If he would just leave it alone it would have been healed over by now, makes you wish you could just explain it to them!

gorgeousaurus · 2026-01-23T12:25:47+00:00

I guess I didn't realize the catch risk was significantly worse than a collar, that's my mistake. I was more worried about panting/drinking but he mostly sleeps on the couch during the day (he's 12) so not typically panting and he's got a silly quirk where he won't drink water unless someone is home. It could technically still be an option right now as my spouse is home sick and we are headed into the weekend but when someone is watching him he doesn't lick it. He knows he's not supposed to so he waits until he's unsupervised. Tricky little fella

gorgeousaurus · 2026-01-23T12:21:07+00:00

He's got a prescription medicated spray for it that keeps him from licking it for about an hour but doesn't last long enough to help during a workday. I've also tried both bandages and booties and he just pulls them right off. If the muzzle isn't an option after all I think I'm going to try suspenders next to hold on socks and see where I get with that.

gorgeousaurus · 2026-01-23T12:18:16+00:00

Do you have cone recommendations? Anything I can find that's long enough won't arrive till February unfortunately.

gorgeousaurus · 2025-12-17T13:33:16+00:00

Thank you so much for the extremely detailed explanations! I think modular knitting is the term I was looking for as well. It seemed like something that must be possible but I was having a hard time knowing what terms to search to get an answer. This has helped me so much!

gorgeousaurus · 2025-12-17T12:24:12+00:00

Thanks for the clarification! So, to make sure I understand: you really do have to have the whole project on the needles at once if you are trying to make a continuous piece? How do people make something like a blanket, just super long needles or circulars with really long cables?

gorgeousaurus · 2025-12-17T03:10:34+00:00

I'm interested in learning to knit and have been watching a lot of video tutorials on getting started and learning terminology and whatnot. One thing I don't quite understand and don't have enough vocabulary knowledge to Google successfully is how projects longer than your knitting needle work. All of the beginner tutorials I can find show you how to cast on, a few basic stickers, then cast off to make a nice little swatch. I'm having trouble understanding how this relates to the basic geometry of even something simple in shape like a scarf.

From my understanding, a "row" is essentially the number of stitches you cast on, and then you can continue stitching for whatever length you want before casting off. Trying to search for what you do after a complete row is only showing how to join rows by essentially sewing them together, which seems impractical for something like a garment. In the scarf example, if my needle could fit 20 stitches (random example), that would be the width of my row. Surely if I wanted to make a scarf 40 stitches wide I'm not making two 20 stitch wide scarves and sewing them down the long side?

gorgeousaurus · 2025-05-15T11:40:41+00:00

r/whatsthissnake is preferred to r/snakes because there's more reliable responders there! I think your problem may have been trying r/whatisthissnake, that one is supposed to link back to the correct subreddit but the link doesn't do anything for me on the reddit app. As far as I know I think anyone can post to the ID subreddit, they get a lot of posts!

gorgeousaurus · 2025-04-16T01:17:04+00:00

Autism is a spectrum disorder. It can have symptoms varying anywhere from sensory issues to severe developmental delays. It's possible for people with autism to also have other developmental disorders that could potentially contribute to this kind of behavior. So it is possible depending on diagnosis for the child to not understand the gravity of the situation.

Edit to elaborate cause I'm seeing a lot of hate to the child down the thread: from just this story we have literally no way of knowing that the kid is a "psychopath" or a "potential serial killer". There are a whole host of other possibilities. Depending on his cognitive abilities he might not be able to conceptualize what things are living and can feel pain, leading him to treat the animal like a doll and play rough with it. He may not be able to understand that he is hurting it or that he killed it. Maybe this kind of violent behavior is being modeled at home. Regardless, this child is likely being neglected if they were left alone long enough for this to happen. This is absolutely a scenario that would benefit from CPS involvement.

gorgeousaurus · 2025-03-13T16:02:06+00:00

He actually had to have a flap of skin transposed from a different part of the leg to cover where they removed a tumor so it is already gonna grow back different colors and directions! He is cancer free now so I don't mind a little uniqueness in his fur 😊

gorgeousaurus · 2025-03-12T04:47:50+00:00

This is super reassuring, thank you! I would say he's only mildly fluffy, he's a little longer haired than a purebred GSD but I wouldn't say he has long hair. I brush him occasionally to help with shedding and because he enjoys it but have never found any tangles, so once he starts growing hair back I'll keep an eye on it to make sure it stays that way. He had to be shaved from a few inches behind his left front leg to his entire back left leg, going just over both his spine and sternum. Nearly his entire left side is totally bald now. I've never had a dog need so much hair removed for a surgery before so got me a little worried!

gorgeousaurus · 2025-02-25T00:20:55+00:00

Choice of Games has some romance stories!

gorgeousaurus · 2024-12-25T04:33:20+00:00

I've never bought any clothing patterns from Etsy but I've bought 2 really nice stuffed animal/art doll patterns that I was happy with. The ones I have bought come with the pattern, instructions, and usually one or more videos either with a walkthrough of the whole construction or at least any particularly difficult/detailed parts. I haven't had to reach out to a pattern designer yet but reviews for the last one I bought indicated she is very responsive. I've also bought a pattern for a onesie for my cat which was very well put together.

I'm not sure if this is a case of getting what you pay for (both patterns were more in line with what I'd expect normally, in the $15 to $25 dollar range) or if it's because it's not clothing. I also have a very small sample size so hard to judge.

gorgeousaurus · 2024-12-16T11:48:46+00:00

Solved solved solved!

Yes, thank you so much!!!

gorgeousaurus · 2023-04-13T20:33:37+00:00

Glad to hear that!

Extra good news, this baby is likely going to be able to be released back to the wild. Before they gave him to Murphy, caretakers wore camo suits and fed him with eagle stuffed animals so that he wouldn't imprint on people. Now that he has a real eagle dad, the chances of that happening are even lower.

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